‘HTGAWM’ Recap: The Castillos Are Back At It Again With The Annalise Sabotage

Annalise zeroes in on the governor's wicked plans.

Tonight’s season finale of How To Get Away With Murder induces the kind of heart attack we’ve all come to expect throughout the years of watching this show. The episode begins with a flashback, of course. It’s Xavier Castillo, Laurel’s Brother, visiting Nate Sr in prison trying to get him to fire Annalise. Nate Sr tells him where to go and you already know the Castillos hate rejection. Xavier tells him he’ll regret this move.

In the present, Nate, Frank, Bonnie, and Annalise want to know why Laurel’s brother would do this. Laurel thinks it’s her father masterminding this and that sets Annalise off. She’s tired of Laurel’s pops so she takes it out on Laurel by pointing out that Wes is actually dead because of Laurel. Annalise proceeds to read her for filth about her family, but then baby Chris starts crying and that calms her down. But Laurel is actually scared for her life too.

Meanwhile, the kids are trying to figure out whose scalp is in the gift bag Laurel got and what they should do about it. They come up with a plan soon enough.

Annalise meets with the governor to tell her she’s bullshitting and that she faked the phone records, but the governor denies it. Basically, she’s still trying to pull Annalise’s leg. Annalise’s isn’t buying it though and asks her if she really thinks she has the power to get the FBI investigating her. The gov thinks about it for a second, but then she’s all like, “Well, someone did.”

That someone is Bonnie and Nate, the underdog underdogs.

Tegan calls Annalise to inform her that the FBI is at the firm arresting Emmett. Annalise says the Castillos are framing Emmett and Tegan says she’s staying out if this, otherwise she’s next.

Then in another flashback, we see Xavier meeting up with Miller. He asks Miller if he wants to be the DA. Of course, he does! Everyone wants to be the DA. Anyway, he asks for a favor related to Annalise’s supreme court client. That would be Nate Sr, and Miller agrees to do whatever it is that needs to be done.

Nate finds out from Warden Sykes that Miller asked him to transfer Nate Sr at night. He said Miller forced him to schedule the transfer at night. But this is a remix of the favor that Xavier wanted. Hold that thought too.

Next, Annalise makes it clear to Emmett that she believes he’s getting framed by the Castillos and that she plans to get him out but the feds get her off the case because they have a recording that convo she had with Tegan from when they thought he was guilty. Because of this, Annalise asks Tegan to step in and tell the FBI whatever she can about her time as Jane Doe to get him off. Tegan is scared because not only could she get disbarred, but again she ain’t trying to bring down the Castillo wrath. We don’t know how this is going to go. Hold that thought.

Michaela finds out from Gabriel that Laurel was thinking about getting immunity from Telesco. So, Michaela confronts Laurel in front of the other kids. Laurel admitted that she did talk to Telesco but then pulls out Christopher’s blanket from the wedding with Miller’s blood on it and says she could have used it to get immunity but she didn’t. They burn the blanket and that’s that, but Laurel knows she’s on the chopping block, especially if her brother and father find out she went to the FBI.

Then Frank does what he does best. He stalks one of the cops involved in Nate Sr’s murder and chokes answers out of her. It was Xavier Castillo who ordered the hit.

Tegan then steps up and tells agents that she agrees to come forward as Jane Doe and attest to Emmet’s innocence. Emmett is shocked hearing her reveal this given she previously told him that she wasn’t Jane Doe. But this could have serious ramifications. However, Tegan mentions that as long as this info stays between them then she should be fine. Anyway, she also reveals that the Castillos are trying to set Emmett up. The agents want to know why and Emmett mentions that the Castillos have a history of keeping DA’s in pocket, but that he can’t be bought. This is enough to get Emmett off for now.

Laurel and Annalise go to NYC to find Xavier and it goes down. He won’t tell Laurel why he’s doing what he’s doing but Annalise don’t play that. She delivers one of her epic reads and tells him that they know he paid the guards to kill Nate Sr for revenge against Annalise. Xavier tries to play dumb but Annalise delivers one of her epic reads. She calls him out on offering to help Miller become DA and that he couldn’t even work Miller enough to get Miller to do what wanted.

Then we see the phone call where Xavier tells Miller to schedule the transfer and that his guards would be waiting. Then we see Miller asking the warden to make the transfer happen at night. The warden says they don’t do night transfers but Miller asks him to make an exception. See? Miller knew Xavier was up to something so he must have thought a night transfer, with guards weren’t in Xavier’s pocket, would have kept Nate Sr alive.

Annalise calls him a failure and then he replies, “Who says I failed?” That’s when we see Miller watching the story about Nate Sr’s death on the news and he’s clearly upset. Xavier calls him and thanks him for the transfer, but he adds a threat: If Miller ever plays him again then he’ll kill everyone he loves starting with Bonnie.

Meanwhile, Asher goes to the FBI with the scalped head in the bag and says they believe it’s Sandrine Castillo’s head, that Xavier did this and that Xavier is the mastermind behind all of this. The point of this is to get Telesco fired because she failed to protect Laurel, a potential witness. Mission accomplished. Telesco is off the case but this is far from over.

Now back to Annalise. After reading Xavier, she tells him she knows he’s working with the governor to take her down and that now the FBI has everything they need to arrest him so he better turn himself in and get ready to share a cell with his pops. Once they leave, Xavier calls the governor and says, “They know more.” She figured they would so now it’s time for plan b.

It’s important to note that Connor and Oliver are watching baby Chris while Laurel is in New York. More on that later.

Emmett and Tegan are still at the office. Emmett is celebrating getting the FBI off his back for now and pours he and Tegan drinks. Tegan says he dodged the FBI but not the Castillos. She also turns down his drink, saying that she’s a gin girl as she’s on her way out. He wants her to stay and celebrate with him and she tells him not to move until she gets back.

Then the governor goes on live TV giving a BS statement claiming that she’s innocent and it gets deeper but hold on.

Next, we see the cop Frank choked outgoing talk to Bonnie and asking for a deal because she’s ready to talk. Bonnie asks her who gave the order and the cop says it was Miller.

You are not going crazy. So… Frank tells Annalise that he knows that Miller ordered the transfer at night to try to protect Nate Sr. Annalise replies, “They can’t know.” The they in question would be Bonnie and Nate Jr. Then we see Frank bribing that cop and telling her to tell Bonnie that Miller ordered the hit.

Back to the gov’s speech. She’s pointing the finger at Emmett. Tegan, who is downstairs doing whatever, calls Annalise to give her this news. Then we cut back upstairs to Emmett on the ground dying. Whatever was in his drink did it and Tegan looks suspect af because she had access to his office, but at the same time she’s freaking out on the phone to Annalise. She said she wants to stay with Annalise because she knows Jorge is sending his hitman right now.

Annalise is still in New York, having this conversation on the street and tries to keep Tegan calm. She tells her that that’s not going to happen but she turns around and realizes that Laurel, who was just standing with her, is gone. says that’s not going to happen then Annalise turns around and Laurel is missing. Panic begins now.

Then Frank busts Oliver and Connor’s place because they were supposed to be watching Christopher. In fact, they were looking at Chris on the monitor, or so they thought. It turns out, the monitor was on loop and Chris is gone too. They’re shook.

WE’RE ALL SHOOK!

Especially Annalise! We end the episode with her frantically yelling out for Laurel.